Portfolio Website

For my new website, I wanted to explore the combination of the powerful react framework, static sites with Gatsby and a headless CMS backend. My previous site was created in Wordpress, but I felt new technologies could make things a bit more interesting, more SEO-friendly and fun for the visitors.

The Backend

Since I like the idea of Wordpress as a content management platform and didn't want to fiddle around with markdown files and images on the loose, I wanted to create a CMS for my own site. I looked at Drupal and Contentful, but landed on Sanity, as it felt right out of the box and gave the opportunity to customize the interface with my own react components. Also, since I also wanted to learn GraphQL, the compatible API made total sense to me.

I created a schema and added all relevant data of my projects, so that I could later access and design my site around the content.

UI Design

I started drawing out some ideas in Figma, asking my girlfriend for her input along the way. Since I had started with my project data, I also knew I would need some symbols for categories and software logos to spice up the list.

UX Design

I wanted to create a site that feels friendly to the user, and gives them a glimpse of my many interests, whilst showing off some of my design skills along the way. Since I want to develop my UX skills further and be part of a design team, I feel I need to explore new modern ways to navigate a site that deviate from the norm.

I made sure the structure was in place before adding too much style and animation, so that the flow felt familiar and the more novel elements didn't distract the user too much from the experience. The result, I hope, is to your liking.